Southeast students join with online community to write novels

Starting on Nov. 1, anyone who chose to participate could begin writing a 50,000-word novel and continue writing it throughout the month of November. Participants join an online community of people who are all involved in the event, called National Novel Writing Month. Some Southeast Missouri State University students are participating in the event.

English education majors Annie Holzen and Shea Moore are both writing novels while also balancing school, extracurricular activities, including the co-educational national service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega, as well as jobs. They work on their novels during breaks they have throughout the day and at night before they go to bed.

Holzen said she found out about National Novel Writing Month while she was procrastinating by being on the StumbleUpon website instead of writing a paper.

"This may be kind of dark, but I've always been really paranoid of dying without ever accomplishing the major thing I wanted to -- writing a novel," Holzen said. "As much motivation as that should be to just get something written on my own time, I have a hard time finishing things."

Moore said she discovered the event while reading about one of her favorite authors. She chose to participate because of the support system provided by the online National Novel Writing Month community, which is pushing her to continue and finish.

There are different support systems available for those involved in writing, such as Facebook groups and the official website nanowrimo.org.

"I have terrible motivation when it comes to finishing stories, and the community of support that comes with National Novel Writing Month really helps boost my productivity," Moore said.

Holzen has been working on the idea for her novel for a few months.

"I usually carry around my notebook and just write down anything I think of when it comes to me," Holzen said.

Although Moore knew about National Novel Writing Month, she didn't decide to participate until it was almost time to start the 50,000-word task.

"I only had three or four days to develop characters, plots, supplies and the self-confidence," Moore said.

Both said participating in National Novel Writing Month has not affected their class work-- yet. Holzen said she now uses homework to procrastinate working on her novel.

Even though Moore said she is dedicated to National Novel Writing Month, she recognizes that her classes are very important, and has become OK with not getting to exactly 50,000 words.

"I'm going to try to not let it interfere with my classes," Moore said.

Both Southeast students said National Novel Writing Month is a fantastic way to get people to sit down and write. The two said bringing together people with the common goal of writing a 50,000-word novel while building a support community is a great way to help people with dreams of writing.

According to nanowrimo.org, National Novel Writing Month began in 1999 with a group of 21 people in San Francisco. Six of them made it to the goal of 50,000 words. By the second year, they had 140 people participate and went international. In 2011, the 13th year of the event, they had 256,618 participants with 36,843 people who reached the goal of 50,000 words.

Moore said she is really excited to be a part of the community they have built around this "insane idea."